Not really all that odd. Before WW2, german was the first foreign language taught here, but hey, it was deemed more appropriate to change to English. And then with most foreign movies and tv series coming from england or the us, it is fairly natural that it has kept it's dominance.
I mean in Europe as a whole, including places where it's not nearly as logical - and places which have their movies and TV series dubbed, I might add.
The places where it is not as logical are typically years behind... they caught up with the trend later, possibly as a result of the trend. also, the places where they do the dubbing have citizens who speak appalling english. Swedish english might not be perfect, but it is 10 times better than german, in general.
What is more interesting is that we here experience a marginalisation of languages such as german and french as they lose their relevance in the world today. there has been a shift towards eastern languages since they are perceived as cooler, and more useful. Also, spanish has taken a larger role, mainly because it is deemed a more simple language to learn.
*nods* Here too, to some extent, but not yet in the schools because French and German are national languages of Belgium. But if you look at the enrollment in language courses for students and adults, the dominance of Spanish is getting ridiculous. In my language schools, there were iirc fourteen classes (of about 25 students each) in the first year of Spanish, and I think three or four of German. And indeed, in university the study of Chinese and Japanese is going through the roof.
Well, the effect is larger here since there are really no rational reasons to learn german or french... But russian is on the rise, for example.
"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world" - Calvin.
/Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
- 24/09/2010 01:37:42 PM
1210 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe
- 24/09/2010 02:10:57 PM
631 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe
- 24/09/2010 03:32:09 PM
583 Views
That is rather sad to say the least.
- 24/09/2010 04:15:32 PM
818 Views
Indeed
- 24/09/2010 06:23:52 PM
620 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe
- 24/09/2010 04:00:04 PM
701 Views
I didn't mean just in Sweden, or Scandinavia.
- 24/09/2010 04:19:32 PM
674 Views
Well...
- 24/09/2010 10:50:09 PM
594 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe
- 24/09/2010 05:47:09 PM
657 Views
Interesting.
- 24/09/2010 06:04:30 PM
612 Views
Re: Interesting.
- 24/09/2010 06:42:02 PM
758 Views
Re: Interesting.
- 24/09/2010 07:05:44 PM
668 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
- 24/09/2010 09:38:05 PM
757 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
- 25/09/2010 05:49:05 AM
737 Views
Self-study can be worth as much as formal classroom study, I suppose
- 25/09/2010 03:43:14 PM
714 Views
Certainly it can.
- 26/09/2010 12:35:56 PM
720 Views
*NM*
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
- 25/09/2010 04:54:40 PM
858 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
- 25/09/2010 07:38:29 PM
783 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
- 26/09/2010 12:07:19 AM
800 Views
They should have asked about second languages rather than foreign languages.
- 26/09/2010 11:34:27 AM
635 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere)
- 27/09/2010 03:18:30 PM
691 Views